Cat aggressive towards me

[hurtingheart]

Hello,
(long, please bear with me)

I am having aggression issues with my 2 year old spayed calico, Cali, that I hand raised. She's always been a little jumpy and dominant towards my other cats, but never attacked me until last July. I ran past her towards another one of my cats who had knocked some stuff over. I yelled the cats name and started to pick the stuff up. From across the room Cali ran to me, leaped at my legs and viciously scratched them several times. I managed to shut her in my bedroom and she howled weirdly for 20 minutes. After she quieted I let her out and she was her old self again.

This July something similar happened. I tripped over another cat and nearly fell. Of course I yelled out in surprise. Then I walked past Cali (whom I did not see) and she attacked my legs. I shut myself in the bathroom and she tried to get in after me. She did the howl again but wandered away after five minutes.

Today I think it almost happened again but I managed to shut the door before she got too close to me.

Does anyone have any idea what the issue might be here? I have had cats my entire life and have never come across one with these kind of issues. I have started giving her homeopathic anxiety and stress drops. I've also ordered soft claws and a feliway diffuser. I am afraid that the vet will want to put her on prozac and I want to try to avoid that. But I can't live like this, not knowing when or what might set her off.

 

[kelly101]

Hello I'm a fellow newbie! I have learned so much from being on this forum it has saved my life! Your problem sounds like something I learned on this forum called redirected aggression I learned from shadows rescue! Look into that and see if that helps. I was having the same issues what my make cat being vicious!

 

[kissthisangel]

It must be quite upsetting to see your cat behave like this. Put yourself in her paws though, your normally quiet caring human is wondering around, suddenly loud noises and panic. The energy must completely change when things like this happen she doesn't understand why the noise is hapening or why you are upset and then just lashes out because .. well she hasn't got anything else left she can do. The soft paws can help with protecting you, but to stop her doing it altogether, well, it might be difficult because there are going to be times its hard to contain suprise, anger etc.

You mentioned as well she's the dominant cat, so she might feel like she is the protector of the other members of the cat clan, so if you're kinda shouting at one, she might feel the need to get at you to protect her pride.

Have there been any incidents between July of last year and july of this year?

 

[hurtingheart]

Hello I'm a fellow newbie! I have learned so much from being on this forum it has saved my life! Your problem sounds like something I learned on this forum called redirected aggression I learned from shadows rescue! Look into that and see if that helps. I was having the same issues what my make cat being vicious!

@ Kelly,

I will look into redirected aggression, thank you.

@ angel

I can understand that sudden loud noises might be upsetting, but the other day I only waved my hands, raised my voice and said "Get off" to a cat who was messing up a pile of clothes. Cali lowered herself close to the ground and started stalking towards me. I got out of there before anything could happen. The idea that she might be protecting the others is interesting, except she only seems to like one of them. I was wondering if it could be feline hyperesthesia? She does have bouts where the fur ripples on her back and she runs around licking herself. One of the symptoms is sudden aggression. Most of the time she is ok, she comes to me a couple of times a day for cuddles. There were no instances of aggression towards me between last July and this one. 

 

[mani]

Here's a link to out article on redirected aggression... see if it makes sense in your situation.

 

[kissthisangel]

 
@ angel

I can understand that sudden loud noises might be upsetting, but the other day I only waved my hands, raised my voice and said "Get off" to a cat who was messing up a pile of clothes. Cali lowered herself close to the ground and started stalking towards me. I got out of there before anything could happen. The idea that she might be protecting the others is interesting, except she only seems to like one of them. I was wondering if it could be feline hyperesthesia? She does have bouts where the fur ripples on her back and she runs around licking herself. One of the symptoms is sudden aggression. Most of the time she is ok, she comes to me a couple of times a day for cuddles. There were no instances of aggression towards me between last July and this one. 

yeah that does sound off if it's minimal noise that's causing it as well. I don't know anything about that condition but I hope you find the cause soon because no one likes a scared and angry cat